1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vending machines adapted to sell consumer items to the public.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vending machines adapted to purvey a wide variety of goods are widely used in retail merchandising. One type used to sell such items as candy, ciagarettes, single serving cans, etc., is built so that the goods being sold are stored in a set of vertical columns which often are used to separate the different brands or types of goods in the machine. Within the column, the goods are stacked by being placed onto a multiplicity of locked pivoting platform like members, placed one above the other and adapted to hold a single portion of the goods being sold. In these machines, after the purchaser deposits a sum of coins of the proper value, the mechanism of the machine is enabled so that when the purchaser pulls a lever or pushes a button indicating his particular purchase, one platform, starting at the lowermost position in the stack, is actuated and will unlock. When this happens, the weight of the stored item will cause it to rotate downward around the pivot point so that the goods thereon will drop off the platform down the column into a receiver from which the purchaser removes the goods purchased. Such machines present few problems as long as all the goods are of the same general size such as candy bars and cigarettes. When, however, goods of varying size such as cakes, pies and similar products where some are fairly wide and others are narrow or small are sold, problems arise. If the machine is adapted for all wide products valuable sales volume is lost when narrow products are sold. Similarly, large cakes will simply not fit into a machine adapted for candy bars. What is therefore needed is a machine which can be modified with minimum effort and at low cost to handle both narrow and wide products at the same time.
The subject invention is designed to do this. Briefly, it is a lightweight aluminum or plastic panel adapted to fit over the platforms to provide an adjustable wider support area with a minimum of effort. Because the vertical columns themselves are normally invariable in width the panel is normally designed so that its extra width will protrude into only one of the adjacent columns. To accomodate them in that column it is only necessary to disengage all of the platforms in it so that they either can be rotated out of the way or physically removed. Vending machines of the type described above routinely incorporate one or the other of these options to facilitate maintenance, cleaning and similar operations.